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Woman in northwest Missouri was not missing Iowa student

KEARNEY, Mo. (AP) — Investigators say they have concluded that a woman spotted in northwest Missouri was not a missing Iowa college student.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Mike Krapfl confirmed Thursday that the reported sighting of Mollie Tibbetts wasn’t substantiated and has been ruled out by investigators.

Police in Kearney, Missouri, said an employee at a truck stop reported Sunday that she saw someone resembling Tibbetts eating at a Taco Bell.

Kearney is about 25 miles northeast of Kansas City.

The Kearney Police Department said in a statement that it spoke to witnesses and reviewed video footage before forwarding a report to a task force investigating Tibbetts’ disappearance.

Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, hasn’t been seen since July 18.

Reward for safe return of missing Iowa student jumps to $30,000

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — The reward for the safe return of a missing University of Iowa college student has jumped to $30,000.

TV station KCCI reported that the reward for the safe return of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts comes mostly from donations. A fund for the reward is set up at First State Bank in Brooklyn.

Tibbetts was last seen jogging on the evening of July 18 in Brooklyn, an Iowa town where the University of Iowa student had been living this summer. Her family reported her missing the next day after she didn’t show up to work.

Dozens of local, state and federal agents are working to determine what happened to Tibbetts, but investigators said at a press conference Tuesday that they still don’t know what happened to her.